@arizonabob- you are right. However, the first pressing is not always the best sounding copy in my experience. And I’m not talking about audiophile reissues done later but just stuff that was remastered or reissued along the way. I think it varies, depending on the record- every one is sui generis, you can take account of different pressing plants within the same country bearing the same deadwax info and they sound different too. Condition is of course a huge factor. Some records that are bombastic are inherently noisy; some of the stuff cut by Bell Sound sounds amped up. Some are chewed up from kludgey tone arms. Given the inflated price of vinyl and the very loose standards for grading, it can be a crap shoot unless you are lucky or deal with a trusted seller--
I found a stash of Nathan Davis records from the early ’70s after he returned from Paris that a guy basically got from a dumpster when the studio and plant closed. They were cheap and got expensive fast. Pressed on the thinnest vinyl I’ve ever encountered. Had a few bad ones- but the seller replaced them.
I don’t know that there is any easy answer or rule of thumb- place of origin? Some of the UK Islands were mastered by Sterling in NY. Searching out the best sounding iterations is different than collecting, though they overlap--- sometimes, the best sounding one is the earliest pressing from the country of origin and is also collectible. And sometimes, the records were produced in such small runs that you don’t have much choice except over the condition of the copy, particularly small to private label stuff or obscurities that never found a market and were pressed once (apart from much later reissues, some of dubious origin). Then there’s the vinyl quality itself, which declined precipitously in the ’70s in the U.S.
FWIW, I used to think that Japanese pressings were usually EQ’d brighter and relied on safeties but some jazz and early prog is good on Japanese-- as is some rock. I think you hunt, compare and try to find what matches your fervor, budget and what’s available- thus, folks with a dozen copies of the same record as part of the quest.
I found a stash of Nathan Davis records from the early ’70s after he returned from Paris that a guy basically got from a dumpster when the studio and plant closed. They were cheap and got expensive fast. Pressed on the thinnest vinyl I’ve ever encountered. Had a few bad ones- but the seller replaced them.
I don’t know that there is any easy answer or rule of thumb- place of origin? Some of the UK Islands were mastered by Sterling in NY. Searching out the best sounding iterations is different than collecting, though they overlap--- sometimes, the best sounding one is the earliest pressing from the country of origin and is also collectible. And sometimes, the records were produced in such small runs that you don’t have much choice except over the condition of the copy, particularly small to private label stuff or obscurities that never found a market and were pressed once (apart from much later reissues, some of dubious origin). Then there’s the vinyl quality itself, which declined precipitously in the ’70s in the U.S.
FWIW, I used to think that Japanese pressings were usually EQ’d brighter and relied on safeties but some jazz and early prog is good on Japanese-- as is some rock. I think you hunt, compare and try to find what matches your fervor, budget and what’s available- thus, folks with a dozen copies of the same record as part of the quest.